Brown's Daily Word 2-3-12

Good morning,


Praise the Lord for this is Friday and Sunday is coming. My granddaughter and grandson love the New England Patriots. They, with their family will be watching the Superbowl this Sunday. A committed and devoted Christian athlete, Tim Tebow did not make it to the Superbowl. Contrary to popular opinion, God does not play favorites.

I was browsing through the news last night. It was reported that a devoted and committed missionary couple was murdered in Mexico yesterday. They have lived and worked in a small village in Mexico for over 20 years, ministering to the poor.

One of my favorite movies is Chariots of Fire, the story of Eric Liddell, who won a gold medal in the 400-meter race at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France. After the Olympics he became a missionary to China. He was a wonderful and godly man. He was also so much loved, that the Chinese erected a monument to him after his death. Eric Liddell was so popular in his day that when he left Edinburgh for China in 1925, thousands of people went to the port just to get a glimpse of him boarding the ship so that they could wish him farewell.

During World War II Eric Liddell was taken prisoner and was among the two Prior to his arrest, Liddell managed to get his wife, Florence, and their two children to safety in Canada. (She was pregnant at the time with their third daughter, whom Eric would never see.) Unfortunately, however, just before the end of World War II, Eric Liddell developed a brain tumor. Because of the war he was not able to get appropriate medical attention, and he died several weeks later. He was just forty-two years old when he died.

How could that possibly be? Eric Liddell was a godly man who lived for the glory of Christ. He was a tremendous testimony to the grace of God. He was able to influence thousands of people to consider the claims of the gospel. Why should a young man who was making a difference for Christ die at such a young age? Why not have ungodly, wicked men have brain tumors die at forty-two?

"The Preacher" who wrote Ecclesiastes recognized that he lived in a time when some of the good die young and some of the wicked die old. People did not understand why bad things happen to some good people while some wicked people seem to prosper. It was difficult to make sense of how things worked in the world. It is against this background that the Preacher in Ecclesaistes 7 encouraged people to trust God even though they cannot make sense of this paradoxical world.

The Preacher began with an observation in verse 15, “In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.” Such was the story of Eric Liddell. He “is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness.”

This is also the story of many righteous young people including the five young missionaries who were ambushed by the Aucas in Ecuador in 1955. They knew Jesus,, they loved the Lord,, and they wanted to serve Jesus their entire lives, but then, tragedy struck, and they were struck down in their youth.

On the other hand, there are many wicked and sinful people, who don’t care about God and the things of God. They care only about themselves. Many of them grow old and comfortable and prosperous. Why is this so? Why, so often, do the good die young and the live to be old? It seems so paradoxical. It seems so backward.

The Preacher said in verse 18, “It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.” The Preacher desired that we should understand and take hold of the truths that neither self-righteousness nor self-indulgence help us make sense of our paradoxical world. In fact, they both lead to destruction and death. However, the one who fears God, the one who trusts God, shall come out, or escape, from both of them.

The only way to live and act in a paradoxical world is to trust Jesus Christ,. When the righteous die young, we must trust Jesus Christ. When the economy does not work as expected, we must trust Jesus Christ . When the elections don’t give us the right politicians and leaders, we must trust the Lord Christ.. When our children turn their backs on the faith, we must trust the Lord.. When our spouse walks out on us, you must trust the Lord. When the world doesn’t make sense, we must trust Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

The Preacher’s quest was to discover how to live a meaningful life. He had tried all kinds of ways to search out how to live a meaningful life, but, in a sense, the more he learned the less he knew.

Bible commentator Charles Bridges said that “our highest knowledge is but a mere atom, when compared with the unsearchable extent of our ignorance. The more we know of God—his nature (Job 9:7)—his works (Psalm 92:5)—his dispensations (Romans 11:33), the more we are humbled in the sense of our ignorance.”

We need to understand our own limitations in terms of what we know and even of what we can know. Recognizing our limitations should produce a humble trust and reliance upon what God has revealed to us in his Word. We live in a world that is often very difficult to understand. Often, things go awry, and we cannot understand it. Yet, in the midst of the paradoxical world, we can trust in Jesus, knowing that He is in sovereign control of all things. We can believe that nothing happens apart from His sovereign will. We must believe that He will work all things for His glory and our good — even though we do not understand it at the present time. We are called to serve Him, witness for Him, worship Him, and love Him. We are called to remain obedient and faithful. We are called to remain in the race that is set before us and, by His grace and for His glory, finish the race well.

In Christ who makes all things beautiful and glorious in His time.

Brown

http://youtu.be/e8HgAVenbUU